Mie high school student commits suicide, leaving names of seven classmates in note

A 16-year-old high school student committed suicide on Tuesday, hanging himself from the ceiling at his home in Ise City, Mie Prefecture, school officials said Thursday. The student blamed seven classmates whose names he wrote on a note, the officials said.

According to the officials, the boy was found hanging by his father on Tuesday afternoon. The father also found the note with the seven names. It said: “I have been verbally and physically insulted and harassed. I am mentally exhausted.”

School officials told media that they have not yet been able to confirm details of the bullying and said they will pursue the matter after a term exam on Saturday.

Exactly Hoser! Just wait, bury our heads in the sand and hope it all goes away. That being said, did he ever report the bullying before? Pretty freaken nasty to leave such a note and blame others. Passive agressive.

in a society where openness is not a norm .people dont discuss problems with parents ,relatives or friends and when it gets to its peak they commit suicide.when i was in high schol i was bullied a lot ,told my parents eerything and never new the word suicide.the kid or the parents, who is to blame?

I told my dad I was being bullied when I was a kid by much bigger kids so he chased them with a 2x4 and that was the last time it ever happened. One of their parents come to our house to complain so my dad chased him out the gate too, swearing and cursing all the way. I will take the same approach with my boy if he gets bullied.

Unfortunately, Japan does not change without outside pressure. It took a world war to change it the last time. My boy is being bullied at school and he could rattle the other boy quite well because of his size. No violence I told him. He can protect himself though. I talked to the school. Nice people and teacher. But the system will not change. I do not force him to go to school and he stayed home all last week because of no stress. He went today on his own choice. I am not too worried. The purpose is to learn the language, interact with other children and to have a Japanese experience. Remember there is no failing in the Japanese system. He will be taking online courses for Math and Science in English. I blame the system that refuses to protect kids. First safety and then teach them something. No supervision on playgrounds and no discipline. It is unfortunate for the more timid souls who are singled out. A failure of the Japanese educational system and character.

Bullies are the scum of the earth. What happens to them? I've seen these stories before, where others are named in a suicide note. Does the media get the names, is there follow-up, do the kids feel regret or anything?

There is indeed help for bullied kids. Thing is, most don't say anything to anyone and plenty of teachers turn their back and ignore the problems because parents don't want to bother a) dealing with their bully kid or b) don't want to believe their child is being bullied. Parents and teachers can do a lot to help but sorry, with the monster parents out there, the kids suffer. They need more helplines and education.

suicide exists everywhere. people always will feel as if they can not handle something difficult, and kill themselves as a way out. it is the parents responsibility to make their child feel as if they can overcome a certain difficulty, and would be a shame to blame it on an entire culture, rather than a specific set of people who are involved in the case.

Parents should have already spoken to their children. I believe these sort of students will show some kinda weird behavior due to the bullying. parents should have noticed it and talked to them about that. i Think the parents were just too busy bout their own stuff that left their children out. so the kids chose this alternative to solve his problem.

RIP kid. Hope your father does take some kind of action and I'm sickened by a society that puts a test before a kids life but will do a retest if a ketai rings or papers are rustled too loudly for the students fragile concentration...

It depends, some kids get bullied, dont tell anyone, and just rough it out. Some kids cant hack it, understandably, and the result is self-harm or suicide. I do feel for the kids who were bullying as i am sure they never truly understood the effect they were having, but they will now for the rest of their lives. Kids are kids so before we know all the details remember that good kids bully as well as downright evil ones, remains to be seen which it was. Tragic all round.

JustTheFacts, I'm afraid those statistics will be ignored. The point here is to vent your anger at the world on Japan - and this board, being anonymous, is supposed to give a chance to do just that. And if that is against the facts? "Don't confuse me with facts, I've made up my mind." A kid committed suicide - Japan must be a terrible place to live, regardless of the reasons, circumstances etc.

The first time I came to Japan, when I´d see some news like these it was hard for me to understand how can some japanese people commit suicide for something that in my opinion wans´t that serious, for I´ve been through lot more than just bullied or bankrupted, and still I´m afraid of death and hope for a better future.
Anyway, when I came to learn more about japanese history and culture, especially about the "bushido" (once a samurai commit some stupid thing under an "almighty landlord´s" command, the least he could do was to "seppuku" himself and/or his whole family in order to show an appology to the master and to purge himself from what he did so that he´d got the right to be born as a samurai in the next life), I came to understand that this millenial culture´s trace is vivid in japanese society even nowadays. Thanks God I was born as a gaijin!

Japan is really far...far behind other developed countries when it comes to mental health. There is still a strong stigma that seeing a counselor is for the weak, and an embarrassment for the family. Antipsychotic drugs seem to be the preferred method instead of cognitive, behavioral, or psychoanalytic treatment. Personally, I would rather be embarrassed and have my child alive than to have the alternative.

Population in Japan = 127,463,611
Males and females are nearly evenly distributed
15,933 male suicides per year in Japan
7,648 female suicides per year in Japan
Total = More than 23,500 suicides per year in Japan.
Like losing one small town every year to a senseless tragedy.

Moderator: No more statistics please. They are not relevant to this particular discussion.

Triple888 "I'm sure those six pupils will live guilt for the rest for their lives." Do you know where you are right now? They will feel no guilt. They will probably play the victim card, completely avoiding any guilt. I mean really, this IS japan.

suicide exists everywhere. people always will feel as if they can not handle something difficult, and kill themselves as a way out. it is the parents responsibility to make their child feel as if they can overcome a certain difficulty, and would be a shame to blame it on an entire culture, rather than a specific set of people who are involved in the case.

I knew it was only a matter of time before a post like this would surface.

Yes suicide does exist everywhere, we all know that. But the point is it happens a lot more in Japan and there are reasons for that. The way the country deals with this issue is archaic at best.

Mental health services/meds are in the stone age. Schools are only concerned with obedience and academics ("pursuing the matter after an exam"!?!). Social/coping skills are not nutured or paid much attention. Teachers/administrators dont have a spine to enforce discipline on studnets (without using physical violence) and are afraid of "upsetting" parents. And of course there is blame for the parents. Many treat their children as pets and have absentee fathers (most likely at hostess bars for "business meetings"). And lets not forget the shame culture itself. The denial in Japan is profound. Admitting you need help is the last resort (Nakagawa).

Building self-esteem is extremely difficult for kids under these circumstances. But hey, its regrettable and cant be helped! Right Japan?

I have no idea what everyone is on about. I must live in the best school area in the entire country. Of course there is bullying but kids around here do tell their parents and teachers and action is taken to sort it out.
"We", well my wife actually, is president of the PTA so we hear everything, and I can't recall a bullying incident that was kept from parents or left to fester. Crikey, I wish we didn't hear half the stuff. There are enough good kids around that at least one of them will tell their mother about a kid getting bullied and then it lands in our laps.
Perhaps part of it is that I am not Japanese so people feel they can tell me anything but I really don't want to know who is eating eating sushi to celebrate their daughter getting their period or the mess some junior high boy's mother must clean up in the morning or who is going to counseling. Yes, believe it or not many students do go for professional help. There are several "heart" clinics around here and there is no shortage of customers.

Not to sound cynical, but bullying in Japan will NEVER cease. It's an important and "necessary" part of the socialization process. In a country that still places such a high value on conformity, both the victims and those who observe it are "taught" about what happens to anyone who dares (or just happens) to be different in any way. That's why nothing is ever done about it by teachers or administrators, and why in some cases it even receives tacit (and occasionally overt) support from those who should be protecting students from this type of abuse.

I used to date a very beautiful young woman who took a lot of heat for being "too tall" when she was in school. I told that where I was from, we called tall, pretty girls, models. In Japan, it was just something to set her apart from her peers. It's absolutely ridiculous.

bullying in school is so obvious thing. then teachers do nothing with it, it means that they took the side of bullies. really, teachers must be punished, not stupid young kids. if every teacher got understood, that in case of bullying he will be punished, he will loose his job immediately, all bullying disappears instantly.

bullying in school is so obvious thing. then teachers do nothing with it, it means that they took the side of bullies. really, teachers must be punished, not stupid young kids. if every teacher got understood, that in case of bullying he will be punished, he will loose his job immediately, all bullying disappears instantly.

Yeah, that'll go over well, putting the teachers in a catch-22 position where they'll either get fired for not disciplining the kids, or get fired when they do and the kids' no-good parents show up to bitch that they were abusing their special little guy.

Don't think that they won't blame the teacher for everything either. My wife teaches high school level English and you wouldn't believe some of these parents that show up after class. "My dumbass kid did bad on this homework, regrade it and give him a good score or I'll bitch to the boss that you're doing a bad job", "So what if my kid sits through class on her cell phone, she hasn't learned anything in your class so far and that's your fault, nevermind that everyone else is doing well." Just about any attempt at discipline, no matter how minor - asking the disruptive kid to either fall in or get out - guarantees a visit from an angry parent and occasionally a visit to the boss to have you done up. I realize this is only in reference to my wife's experiences, but I doubt these experiences are a rarity in Japan.

The way I see it, the entire public school system needs to change. The schools need to grow some balls and start standing up to these dimwit parents that think their special little guy is somehow more entitled to a good life than other kids. That and the public school curriculum, which I feel is designed to stifle innovation and basically pump out corporate drones.. but that's for a different thread.

Not to sound cynical, but bullying in Japan will NEVER cease. It's an important and "necessary" part of the socialization process. In a country that still places such a high value on conformity, both the victims and those who observe it are "taught" about what happens to anyone who dares (or just happens) to be different in any way. That's why nothing is ever done about it by teachers or administrators, and why in some cases it even receives tacit (and occasionally overt) support from those who should be protecting students from this type of abuse.

I used to talk often to a lady who's a teacher in a Japanese jr. high school. She told me on several occasions that she thinks bullying is important for kids to help build character and learn about life. That always made me really, really sad. Not just because bullying causes kids to do stuff like in this article, but because when you're being bullied you want to talk to a teacher about it, and if the teacher thinks bullying is GOOD for you, I can only imagine it would make the situation worse.